Taste of Nations: Students gather in Vines Center to try food from over 20 countries

Taste buds traveled across the globe Thursday as students came together to experience a wide variety of traditional foods, dance and music from around the world at the Taste of Nations event.

Food samples like poutine from Canada and jollof rice from Nigeria were set up around the Vines Center, and live music was provided from the stage near on the arena’s floor. 

Taste of Nations was part of Liberty University’s Global Focus Week, a semi-annual event that focuses on global recognition and supporting missionaries around the world. Over 20 countries were represented at Taste of Nations this year. The event, hosted by the International Student Center, featured international students and missionary kids who spent time preparing and serving authentic foods from their native countries with a budget the university
gave them. 

“The idea of having people learn something new about another culture that they wouldn’t have learned otherwise—and the fact that it’s over food—is my favorite part of Taste of Nations,” senior Liberty student Jordan Addley said. “From this experience, I take away that other cultures are not strange or weird, they’re just different
and new.”

Addley attended Taste of Nations last year, which motivated him to volunteer to serve food this year.

Styrofoam plates were provided upon entry, and guests were encouraged to go from country to country, collecting toothpick flags with each new dish they sampled. 

“I’m really excited to visit the Haiti table, and just to get some food from my culture — from my land — being that I’m a second-generation Haitian,” junior Maurice Victor II said. “I’m just excited to get that experience and listen to all the music and stuff too.”

In previous years, the Taste of Nations was held in the LaHaye Multipurpose Center and the Montview Alumni Ballroom. This year however, the event was moved to the Vines Center, where Liberty’s Convocation is held, to hold a larger crowd of people. The Vines Center typically seats over 13,000 in weekly attendance.

“It’s a lot more open compared to the last few years I’ve attended,” junior Andrew James said. “You don’t bump into each other as much. I like that.”

The event began at 9 p.m. and lasted until 11 p.m.

Guest were encouraged to move around to different “countries,” or watch the performers singing and dancing.

Toward the end of the night, the floor was flooded with attendees eager to learn various dances from different cultures, clapping and singing along to the music. Members of D-Trex dance club also performed at the end of the event. 

The Taste of Nations event rounded out the Global Focus Week hosted by the Office of Spiritual Development. 

Tarr is a news reporter. Follow her on Twitter.

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